System and Method for In-Context Exploration of Search Results

ABSTRACT

A method of providing in-context exploration of a query results web page, wherein the web page has at least one element and a plurality of query results, receives an indication of interest in the at least one element, and in response to the indication, emphasizes at least one query result relative to the plurality of query results.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

Aspects of the present invention relate generally to providing anability to refine a search without having to fully execute a separate ornew search.

2. Description of Related Art

Currently, some search systems return suggestions together with thesearch results, and a user is given the option of choosing any of thesearch results or running one of the suggested searches. When the userchooses one of the suggested searches, a new search is performed and theresults presented to the user, just as if the user manually entered thesuggested search terms into the search engine. While this functionalitycan be helpful, it generally is not very efficient, as the user has towait for the new search to complete before determining whether therefinement helped or hurt.

Thus, it is desirable to more densely interlink search suggestions withalready-received search results.

SUMMARY

In light of the foregoing, it is a general object of the presentinvention to provide a system and method for providing instant feedbackrelated to suggested searches and other web page elements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of the general architecture of anexemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a search results web page illustrating operation of anexemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates generally a high-level architecture and process flowaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Detailed descriptions of one or more embodiments of the inventionfollow, examples of which may be graphically illustrated in thedrawings. Each example and embodiment is provided by way of explanationof the invention, and is not meant as a limitation of the invention. Forexample, features described as part of one embodiment may be utilizedwith another embodiment to yield a further embodiment. It is intendedthat the present invention include these and other modifications andvariations.

Aspects of the present invention are described below in the context ofproviding in-context feedback related to suggested searches received inresponse to a search query.

Throughout this disclosure, reference is made to “system,” which is usedto denote a search/advertising infrastructure through which an Internetsearch and/or advertising network operates (e.g., Yahoo!'s® PublisherNetwork, Yahoo! Search®, etc.). There currently are numeroussearch/advertising infrastructures (e.g., those run by Yahoo!®, Google™,etc.) and most offer similar services, such as, for example, respondingto search queries from users, serving or presenting advertisements(which may be relevant to the search query), etc.; “serving” or“presenting,” as used herein, is the mechanism by which advertisementsare delivered to web pages.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of the general architecture of anexemplary embodiment of the present invention. Search/advertisinginfrastructure 100, as described above, may include any of a number ofservers 105 and 110 (which optionally may include databases), etc.required for its operation; search/advertising infrastructure 100 alsomay implement the methods used to provide in-context exploration ofsearch results to an end user, as detailed herein. Client(s) 120 maycomprise a user at a computer carrying out typical web actions (e.g.,browsing, searching, etc.). Search/advertising infrastructure 100 andClient(s) 120 are linked together through Network 115 (e.g., theInternet, etc.).

Throughout this description, reference is made to “query,” which is usedto denote a search query given by a user when performing a searchthrough a search engine. A query can comprise terms, and may contain asingle term, multiple terms, a phrase of terms, etc. Generally, a queryis related to a request for information.

Conventional search results may include both the search results thatcorrespond directly with the search query, and suggested or recommendedsearches provided by a search assistant. For example, if a user searchesfor “cars,” he may receive from a search engine search results thatcorrespond directly with that search query, and from a search assistantvarious recommended searches, such as, for example, “cars to buy,” “carhistory,” etc. Generally, the recommended searches are hyperlinked tothe Universal Resource Indicator (URI) of a corresponding search so thatthe user can explore the recommended search by clicking on the link(i.e., the click causes the search engine to run, and provide resultsfor, the recommended search). It will be appreciated that how the searchassistant determines its suggestions is not critical to the invention,and that this may done using any currently known methods, or methodsthat may be developed in the future.

Thus, current search assistants aim to help the user by refining theirinformation request through suggestions, and providing related terms forthe search query. If the user decides to try one of the suggested searchqueries, a new search corresponding to the suggested query is performed.This mechanism can be very powerful, especially when the user has aspecific information need, but is maybe not quite an expert on thetopic. At the same time however, the user's lack of expertise orknowledge on the topic limits his ability to know in advance the likelyresult of the suggested refinement (i.e., the result of running asuggested search, etc.), which may lead to a time-inefficient,trial-and-error undertaking. The main problem is that, at the level ofthe user interface, the search assistant and the set of search resultsare completely de-coupled.

By interlinking the search results with the search assistant, instantfeedback related to the recommendations provided by the search assistantcan be realized, and the user can more efficiently explore therecommendations and more quickly find the information he seeks.Generally, the instant feedback will relay to the user which of thecurrent results corresponds to the context provided by the searchassistant's suggestions; for the remainder of the detailed description,such results will be referred to as “in-context” results. Generally, theinstant feedback may comprise any of a number of various ways ofemphasizing the in-context results relative to the original results. Forexample, in-context results may be highlighted (e.g., by giving a yellowbackground to the associated text, etc.), non-in-context results may befaded, the size of the in-context results may be increased, etc.

As an example of in-context results, consider search results page 200illustrated in FIG. 2. Search box 210 contains a searchquery—“information visualization”—that a user has submitted to a searchengine. Suggestions 220 are suggestions or recommendations provided by asearch assistant, and presumably are related in some respect to theoriginal search query.

Search results 230 may be the first few search results returned by thesearch engine. If the user mouses over the secondsuggestion—“information visualization journal”—in-context results 240,250, and 260 may be highlighted or otherwise indicated in some manner asbeing related to the suggestion (i.e., those results, or types ofresults, may be returned by the search engine if the user clicks on thesuggestion).

The correlations made between search results 230 and in-context results240, 250, and 260 may be interacted with at the user-interface level byan in-context explorer, which can be implemented in any of a number ofways. For example, consider a JavaScript™ implementation whereby theJavaScript is generated server-side and incorporated into the searchresults web page shown to the user. The JavaScript™ may control thefeedback given to the user when he mouses over (or performs some similaraction on) a suggestion provided by the search assistant.

FIG. 3 illustrates generally a high-level architecture and process flowaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. At block 300 a usermay arrive at a search page provided by, for example, search/advertisinginfrastructure 100, where the user may execute search request 305.Search request 305 is sent to both retrieval system 350 and searchassistant 355, as shown at blocks 310 and 320, respectively. Though FIG.3 shows blocks 310 and 320 occurring simultaneously, it will beappreciated that retrieval system 350 may, for example, receive thesearch request before search assistant 355, and that such order is notcritical to the invention.

Retrieval system 350 may be a search/advertising infrastructure asdescribed with regard to FIG. 1. Generally, retrieval system 310 willreceive and respond to search request 305 with search results 315.Generally, search assistant 355 will receive and respond to searchrequest 305 with search suggestions 325. At block 330, search results305 and search suggestions 325 are received by correlator 360, whichattempts to make correlations 335 between them (i.e., “in-context”results, as detailed herein). It will be appreciated that correlator 360may be a part of, or entirely separate from, a search/advertisinginfrastructure, may be implemented in hardware or software, etc.In-context explorer 365 incorporates correlations 335 determined bycorrelator 360 into the search results page, such that correlations 335may be explored by the recipient of the search results page, as shown atblocks 340 and 345. As discussed, in-context explorer 365 may beimplemented in a variety of ways, including as JavaScript™ within thesearch results page.

It will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to searchsuggestions, but in fact may comprise any other “linkable” elementpresented on a search results page, including geographic maps, keywords,photographs, advertisements, etc. For example, consider a searchexecuted on a photo-sharing service that hosts photos from users allover the world. The results of the search may be presented together witha map of the world, and points on the map may be correlated with thesearch results (by, for example, geographic information added to a photoby the camera that took it or by the user, etc.). In this scenario, anin-context explorer may emphasize photos returned by the search thatcorrespond to a location on the map as indicated by the user (e.g., theuser may hover his mouse over Florida, and if any of the photo searchresults corresponds to Florida, those results may be emphasized).

It also will be appreciated that the correlations made between thelinkable elements (including search suggestions) and the in-contextresults may be accomplished in various ways, and that the methods usedare not necessarily critical to the invention. For example, in thecontext of web search, a correlator may correlate search suggestionswith search results by looking for similarities between the termscomprising a search suggestion and the content associated with each ofthe search results, including metadata incorporated into the source ofthe web page, or otherwise known by the search engine (e.g., the titleof the web page linked to by a search result, the content of the webpage linked to by a search result, etc.).

As another example, consider a social-bookmarking service where users ofthe service can add “keywords” (or “tags”) or other descriptors to abookmark; such keywords may be used by a correlator to correlatesuggested keywords with search results, thus creating in-contextresults. For example, if a user searches for “exotic cars” on asocial-bookmarking service, the service may return results thatcorrespond to the search, and a search assistant (or similar) maydetermine and suggest keywords that may be relevant to the search (e.g.,“car,” “automobile,” “horsepower,” etc.), where the keywords already maybe associated with one or more of the search results (e.g., a user whoadded one of the search results to the service also may have assigned tothat result various keywords, etc.). When the user invokes thein-context explorer by, for example, mousing over a suggested keyword,the corresponding in-context result(s) may be emphasized.

As still another example, consider a photo-sharing service where acorrelator may make correlations between photos based on keywords (e.g.,those given by users of the system who upload/view the photos),geo-location information associated with a photo (e.g., as providedmanually by a user, automatically by a camera, etc.), etc. Suchcorrelations also may be made based on the content of the image; in thisregard, it will be appreciated that a photo-sharing service may providethe ability to match images according to general shapes, colors, etc.For example, if a user searches for “big ben” through a photo-sharingservice that provides content-based matching, he may be given a list ofsearch results (in the form of, say, thumbnails) and samples with whichto further filter the search results. After choosing one or moresamples, in-context results may be determined (and emphasized) based oncontent-matching done between the chosen sample images and the searchresults.

In-context results need not be limited to just some subset of theoriginal results, but also may comprise advertisements shown alongsidethe search results. In the case of a search/advertising infrastructureas detailed above—where the infrastructure may provide both the searchresults and advertisements that presumably are related to the search—thecorrelator may be able to determine which of the ads are relevant to thesuggestions, and this determination may be based on any of various knownmethods. For example, when an advertiser initially purchases an ad to beshown alongside search results, he may provide with that purchase“keywords,” or some other descriptor of the ad, and the keywords may beused to correlate the ad with a search suggestion (Oust as the keywordsmay now be used to inform the determination of whether the ad should beshown in response to a particular query). As another example, acorrelation may be based on an analysis of the content of the page towhich the ad points, etc.

The sequence and numbering of blocks depicted in FIG. 3 is not intendedto imply an order of operations to the exclusion of other possibilities.Those of skill in the art will appreciate that the foregoing systems andmethods are susceptible of various modifications and alterations. Forexample, while FIG. 3 concerns the specific example of correlatingsearch results with search suggestions, other correlations may be made,including those discussed herein (e.g., correlating advertisements onthe page with a search suggestion, etc.).

Those of skill in the art also will appreciate that the methodsdescribed herein may be performed on a computer which executesinstructions stored on a computer-readable medium. The medium maycomprise a variety of volatile and non-volatile storage devices,systems, or elements, including but not limited to solid-state memory,fixed media devices, and removable media which may be used in computershaving removable media devices.

Several features and aspects of the present invention have beenillustrated and described in detail with reference to particularembodiments by way of example only, and not by way of limitation. Thoseof skill in the art will appreciate that alternative implementations andvarious modifications to the disclosed embodiments are within the scopeand contemplation of the present disclosure. Therefore, it is intendedthat the invention be considered as limited only by the scope of theappended claims.

1. A method of providing in-context exploration of a query results webpage, wherein the web page comprises at least one element and aplurality of query results, said method comprising using a processor toperform the steps of: receiving an indication of interest in the atleast one element; and in response to said receiving, emphasizing atleast one query result relative to the plurality of query results. 2.The method of claim 1 wherein said emphasizing comprises highlightingthe at least one query result.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein saidemphasizing comprises fading each query result other than the at leastone query result.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least oneelement is selected from the group consisting of: a query suggestion; akeyword; a photograph; an advertisement; and a geographic map.
 5. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising, in response to said receiving,emphasizing an advertisement on the web page.
 6. A method ofinterlinking at least one query result with at least one element on asearch results web page, said method comprising using a processor toperform the steps of: receiving a plurality of query results; andcorrelating the at least one query result with the least one element. 7.The method of claim 6 wherein said correlating is informed by keywordsassociated with the at least one element.
 8. The method of claim 6wherein said correlating is informed by content associated with the atleast one query result.
 9. The method of claim 6 wherein the at leastone element is selected from the group consisting of: a querysuggestion; a keyword; a photograph; an advertisement; and a geographicmap.
 10. A system for providing in-context exploration of a queryresults web page, wherein the web page comprises at least one elementand a plurality of query results, said system comprising: an in-contextexplorer to: receive an indication of interest in the at least oneelement; and in response to said reception, emphasize at least one queryresult relative to the plurality of query results.
 11. A system forinterlinking at least one query result with at least one element on aweb page, said system comprising: a correlator to: receive a pluralityof query results; and correlate the at least one query result with theat least one element.
 12. The system of claim 11 further comprising asearch engine to provide the plurality of query results to thecorrelator.
 13. The system of claim 11 further comprising a searchassistant to provide the at least one element to the correlator.
 14. Acomputer-readable medium encoded with a set of instructions which, whenperformed by a computer, perform a method of providing in-contextexploration of a query results web page, wherein the web page comprisesat least one element and a plurality of query results, said methodcomprising: receiving an indication of interest in the at least oneelement; and in response to said receiving, emphasizing at least onequery result relative to the plurality of query results.
 15. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein said emphasizing compriseshighlighting the at least one query result.
 16. The computer-readablemedium of claim 14 wherein said emphasizing comprises fading each queryresult other than the at least one query result.
 17. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim 14 wherein the at least one element isselected from the group consisting of: a query suggestion; a keyword; aphotograph; an advertisement; and a geographic map.
 18. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim claim 14 further comprising, inresponse to said receiving, emphasizing an advertisement on the webpage.
 19. A computer-readable medium encoded with a set of instructionswhich, when performed by a computer, perform a method of interlinking atleast one query result with at least one element on a search results webpage, said method comprising: receiving a plurality of query results;and correlating the at least one query result with the least oneelement.
 20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein saidcorrelating is informed by keywords associated with the at least oneelement.
 21. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein saidcorrelating is informed by content associated with the at least onequery result.
 22. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein theat least one element is selected from the group consisting of: a querysuggestion; a keyword; a photograph; an advertisement; and a geographicmap.